One more catty, one more attribute point

"Swoosh!"

Su Heng suddenly raised his head, his fingers shooting forward in a fierce grab.

Reddish, vigorous energy rose and fell like leaping flames, leaving shadows in the sunlight.

The lush branches overhead made a rustling noise as a tree limb, as thick as an adult's wrist and over a meter long, fell from the sky, now held in Su Heng's hand.

The intensified Yang Pole True Strength surged into the stout branch.

Hisss!

Streams of black smoke rose from the branch.

It was as if it had been placed in a furnace for roasting, with its moisture rapidly evaporating.

Crack!

Su Heng squeezed with his five fingers with force.

The branch shattered into several pieces, turning into grey-black charcoal chunks, which then fell to the ground.

"This is the effect of Fire Poison, which completely charred the tree branch that was just plucked from the big tree. If the pure Yang True Strength mixed with Fire Poison were to surge into the flesh and blood of a person or demon..." Imagining the scene made Su Heng shudder involuntarily.

A palm strike administered, and a sweep of Yang Pole True Strength would directly roast the opponent's internal organs.

If the fight dragged on for a bit longer without any special means of defense,

That would mean blood drying up, turning the body into a dried corpse.

"Devilish cultivation techniques are indeed much more domineering," Su Heng couldn't help but remark.

Of course, the Fire Poison was so powerful now because it had been integrated with the fully accomplished Yang Pole Black Evil Skill.

Otherwise, with just the Red Poison Technique alone,

Though it would still be lethal with Fire Poison, the effects would never be as exaggerated as Su Heng's.

With thirty attribute points remaining, he didn't hesitate to allocate them all to the newly merged Red Extreme Black Evil Skill, breaking through from the ninth to the tenth level.

The thirty attribute points were used up.

However, this time the special effects column did not show any changes.

Su Heng closed his eyes, feeling attentively, and could sense that the overall amount of his strength had increased, roughly by about thirty percent.

But for a qualitative change to occur,

It was still not enough.

"Perhaps I need to reach the next realm for that," Su Heng guessed.

He opened the attribute panel to take another look.

With the enhancement of the two skills, the progress of Vein Mutation jumped from seventy-five to nearly ninety.

Between vagueness and clarity, Su Heng sensed a feeling of completion.

"The breakthrough is probably just in these upcoming days," Su Heng estimated, "If fast, maybe just five or six days, and at the slowest, it should not exceed half a month."

He was quite satisfied with such progress.

But...

The flesh and blood of the water ghost had been completely consumed.

There was still some left of the white panther's flesh, but not much.

And compared to the flesh of a proper demon, the white panther's was still much inferior. Heikui Mountain was shrouded in white mist, making it impossible to obtain the flesh of the 'meat Taishui.'

When the accumulated flesh and blood were completely digested,

By then, if no new demons had been killed, accumulating attribute points would become much slower.

"Given my initial assumption, I had always thought that the mist demon was that powerful white panther. But my last experience has already proved my guess wrong. Besides the white panther, the only likely demon presence in Heikui Mountain is the 'meat Taishui,' whose flesh I've eaten plenty but never seen its true form..."

"Mist demon, 'meat Taishui,' could there be some special connection between the two?"

"Or even, the mist demon itself could be some kind of Taishui-like demon!"

Fetching a clean piece of white cloth,

Su Heng bent down to wipe the mud off his feet, put on his socks and shoes, and then returned indoors.

The sunlight shone through the window, casting upon the clean and neat desk.

A thick county chronicle with a letter wedged inside.

Su Heng reached out and opened the letter, looking at the slightly sloppy handwriting on it.

After a long moment, he sealed the letter again and stuffed it into his bosom. Raising his head to gaze at the mottled tree shadows outside the window, Su Heng's furrowed brows gradually relaxed, and finally, he let out a carefree laugh, "Well then, I'll take this opportunity to explain everything to sister, I can't keep dragging this on."

...

...

...

The time arrived at evening.

In front of the Su Family estate, on the wide and flat street.

Su Heng stooped to board an extra-thick, extra-wide carriage, which obviously sank down upon his entry, issuing a grating creak.

After Li Si had met with an unexpected demise.

Another robust and efficient coachman had been accompanying Su Heng on his daily errands.

This coachman was called Wang Lin. From a young age, he had learned a formidable external cultivation technique known as the Iron Sand Palm, with amazing strength in his palms, visibly larger than those of an ordinary person.

Placed in the world of martial arts, he could barely be considered a first-rate expert.

"Go!"

Wang Lin's burly palm grabbed the horsewhip and swung it fiercely, snapping it on the backside of the horse.

The horse, worth a thousand taels of Silver, let out a neigh, its head low, pulling the carriage with some difficulty, heading outside the city.

The carriage quickly disappeared on the wide flagstone street.

In the setting sun.

The figures of Su Li and Xiao Qing slowly emerged from the other side of the street.

"He's left." Even in the evening, Xiao Qing was still holding an oiled paper umbrella.

"I've already received the news; he's going out to the black market to acquire a batch of cultivation techniques. The round trip should take about an hour or so."

Su Li clenched her fists, took a deep breath, her full chest heaving, looking somewhat nervous.

"This time is enough for us to thoroughly investigate the secret in that courtyard."

"Mm-hmm," Xiao Qing nodded.

Over the past few days, they had been investigating Su Heng's daily routines.

They found that most of the time, Su Heng was not at the residence but was cultivating in a small courtyard in Jiutiao Fang.

Su Li had been to that small courtyard before.

But from the surface, there didn't seem to be anything special about it.

Only once they got closer would the Demon Seeking Compass react, indicating that the small courtyard where Su Heng had resided for a long time was not as simple as it appeared.

And...

Su Li had also heard another piece of news from the servants at home.

On the night the water ghoul died, a group of craftsmen had built an underground chamber in the courtyard.

As for the purpose of that underground chamber, no one else could say.

Not wanting to attract too much attention, Su Li couldn't investigate openly and aggressively.

But based on the information received, Su Li speculated that the real secret was certainly hidden in that mysterious underground chamber.

The deeper she thought, the more restless Su Li felt in her heart.

The curiosity about the secrets on Su Heng's person, the excitement of danger, and the urgency to save her own brother.

All these emotions filled her heart.

So much so that she had visibly worn herself down lately.

Fortunately, Su Heng was now obliged to leave due to an errand, and Su Li finally had the opportunity to personally investigate the small courtyard.

"Huff..."

Su Li took a deep breath, slowly calming her state of mind.

"There's no time to waste, let's set out now," Su Li waved to Xiao Qing, and both of them turned and disappeared into the shadows at the corner of the wall.

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